He said Kendrick had been dating a white girl at the school in 2011. He got into a fight with a white boy at the school and apparently won the fight. Although the article does not say what the fight was about, I get the impression that it may have had something to do with Kendrick dating the white girl.

The white boy was unwilling to let the matter drop and challenged him to another fight to take place at the white boy’s house. Kendrick declined.

The white boy’s father or mother may be a police official.

Kendrick’s death occurred not long after that.

This report is similar to information provided by a commenter here several weeks ago when I first wrote about this case. The person said Kendrick was dating a white girl who had been dating the son of the Sheriff of Lowndes County.

I do not yet consider this information to be established fact. I am going to need more verification.

I certainly do not believe he crawled down the tube opening in the mat to retrieve his athletic shoe, got stuck and asphyxiated by accident. That story is ridiculous.

However, if this new information is true, it could explain who killed Kendrick, why he killed him, and why the murder was covered up. I doubt the kid with the grudge and score to settle acted alone.

Hopefully, Benjamin Crump will solve this mystery soon.

I am not buying the school district’s argument that the videos from the CCTV cameras do not show anything because none of the cameras were aimed at the mat in which Kendrick’s body was found, but they cannot release the videos to confirm that claim because other students appear in them and they have not consented for the videos to be released.

There are ways to ghost out faces, so identities can be protected.

Lowndes County is looking incredibly corrupt and not doing well in the court of public opinion.

Time to stop playing hide-the-ball and let the chips fall where they may.

154 Responses to New information revealed in Kendrick Johnson case

That’s very interesting because it suggests the younger brother may not have departed on the bus for the wrestling match before KJ ended up in the mat. This shouldn’t be hard to figure out. There must be a record of who was on the bus and when it left.

Categorized under Railroad Contractors, our records show it was established in 1978 and incorporated in Georgia, current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $2.5 to 5 million and employs a staff of approximately 10 to 19.

towerflower, I don’t think this sheriff would jeopardize his elected position to save any of his staff, he personally would have too much to lose. However, if you read my post of 8:48 am, there are some people that are possibly involved, and he would be almost forced to protect, because of the political situation in that area. The lead suspect in my mind at this time, and the more I dig and learn about her family, the more I wonder about her involvement. Take a look at Amy A. (Alexander) Carter, Tea Party State Representative, and also a school teacher at the school involved. She has two children in the school system, could one of them be involved? While you are looking, take a look at this individual who is/was related Rowland (Bubba) Alexander. We have all been looking at small fish to be the culprit, however is it possible that the parties involved are “Old Time Valdosta” society and leaders? Who else would be so worthy of a Sheriff and State law enforcement figures to protect? Power is the control factor in this case…. Who has the power to command silence?

“As a dedicated family man, Prine has been married to Carol Prine, formally Lineberger, for 42 years and is the father of Christy Hamilton, who has two daughters. Their daughter and son-in-law are both employed with the Lowndes County School system. ”

Couldn’t find any Hamiltons in the high school. Don’t have the time to look in the middle or elementary schools. It’s quite possible that the Hamilton’s daughters are of high school age. iirc, Sheriff Prine said he didn’t have any male relatives in the high school without addressing the possibility of female relatives. If a granddaughter is in the school, then most likely, so, too, her boyfriend. But I may have remembered incorrectly.

I’m going to rephrase a question asked yesterday by another commenter:

Do the school administrators, in fact, have footage of the “accident”, and therefore have knowledge of who may or may not be responsible, but has decided not to follow up the incident by either filing an accident report or pursuing any disciplinary action? Is this a fact or are we presuming that this is the case?

If it is indeed true, to be honest, I find that hard to believe that a school wouldn’t properly investigate the death of one of their own students, including a thorough examination of surveillance video. Aren’t the other parents protesting? Doesn’t that put their own children at risk? What is the point of video surveillance then, if not for providing security?

At the very least, even if you believe video surveillance does not belong in a school and serves no academic purpose and does not deter violence or whatever and that other anti-violence preventative measures are more effective, then if it IS installed, it should AT THE VERY LEAST be used as a reactionary tool in the event that THERE IS violence that occurs on school property. As in, JUST LOOK AT THE FOOTAGE AND DEAL WITH IT LIKE YOU WOULD ANY OTHER DISCIPLINE / SECURITY ISSUE.

I work in a high school that uses video surveillance and we investigate slapping incidents in the hallway, or incidents where a student claims he/she wasn’t cutting class but taking a make-up quiz somewhere. We had the computer lab doorknob broken off recently; our instinct was foul play, although at the same time, the “break-in” appeared unsuccessful and no computers were stolen/damaged. When no one came clean with a valid story, the video files were checked and we figured out it was a member of the janitorial staff having a key malfunction. He was embarrassed and scared to report that he broke the doorknob.

Whatever. Bottom line is, If a kid was murdered (or even simply assaulted – but especially murdered) on campus, we’d all be sitting around the screens studying the videos trying to figure it out. And when we did, the appropriate action would be taken, in order to satisfy the parents of the victims, and also to make sure that the student body, their parents, and staff felt safe in the building.

I’m not saying I believe Kendrick Johnson’s death to be an accident (it wasn’t), or that the school has handled this properly (they haven’t), or that the police department has done their job (again, they haven’t). This whole thing is a clear demonstration of institutional racism at its finest.

I just want to know for sure: has the school issued any statements saying definitively, “Yes, we have the footage of the accident, and it shows no foul play… However, we cannot release it” or “Yes, we have the footage of what happened, but due to privacy issues we a) will not release it, and b) also not pursue any disciplinary action.”

Last night after thinking about this case, and trying to understand “who and why” the law enforcement community would attempt to protect someone, it dawned on me that perhaps we were looking the wrong direction. It had been suggested that the Sheriff had a son who was involved, or that a person high in the law enforcement community had a son involved, perhaps that is not accurate? I did a search of elected officials for Valdosta and the county, and quickly noticed that the profiles of most had been scrubbed and very little personal information was available. I started looking using the assumption that there would be a direct family member (son/daughter) involvement in the case, so I looked for someone in the 35 to 45 year age group (assuming the age of the child was about 17). After looking at quite a few that did not seem to fit the profile, I discovered that amongst the possible people was a person named “Amy A. Carter” who is an elected member of the state legislature and also a “teacher” at the school where the murder took place. Mz. Carter also is the mother of two children, whose ages I have not been able to determine. Perhaps someone on here is in the area and could find out a little more information about this lady and the possible family connection to Kendrick? Am I looking at this from the wrong direction, perhaps, but perhaps not… anyone wish to look at this in more depth? I might note, that this lady is an established member of the Valdosta Tea Party, and has supported some legislation in the Georgia House that is/was detrimental to the welfare of minorities. She would definitely be a worthy candidate for protection from a scandal that could cost her politically….

I should have added this link to my post above, it might give you a little more insight into my thinking. Look at the family photo in this link and you will see a son and daughter that could easily fit into the age group that would possibly be involved in the case… Look and think….

bettykath, Mz. Carter has a daughter that is about 16 or so, it had been indicated that Kendrick was involved with a girl, could this be the girl? I wish we had someone here in the area that could ask around and get some answers for us! But that is not to be, too bad….

All of those school cameras in the gym…wouldn’t it be easy to determine if those 6 drips down the wall were there on a previous date?
What school gym allows blood drips like that to go unnoticed? If paramedics have a call where blood is on the cement, ground, etc. they wipe it down with peroxide. They need to question the schools janitorial staff.
Should also be able to see who came into the gym with those bright orange laces. Hard to miss that one.

The point of these shoes is that it isn’t known whether or not the owner of the shoes is involved. Of course, the owner isn’t necessarily involved, however, the owner MAY be involved. I don’t see that it has been determined. In any case, the shoes were at the crime scene and should have been bagged and tagged.

You are so right betty, anything that within close proximity to the crime scene should have been tagged and bagged. It sounds like they did a quick blood swab test to see if it was blood and when the results came back negative they left them and didn’t bother any further.

They also mentioned about how contaminated the scene became when no one took proper measures to protect it, ie. blue booties on shoes. You can find pics with some of the cops shoes showing with no protection on them. Then you have the blood stain on the wall that they dismissed. There was so much wrong with just the basic investigation I wonder IF they are able to find a suspect how much will be thrown out of a trial due to the incompetence of the crime scene investigators resulting in a murderer to go free.

Except that a kid cannot “crawl into” a rolled up mat, make it PAST a pair of sneakers, leave them there by his feet and continue “crawling” in (upside-down) to find his own missing sneaker. Those sneakers would have been displaced if he had “crawled in.” It gives the lie to the explanation they used to cover up his murder.

Professor, If you come by to check tonight, could you tell us what the limits are for the Fed’s in this case? Are their parts that they can not investigate? While the evidence has been corrupted to the point that it is questionable if a trial of someone for the murder may never happen, can the people who tampered with the evidence be charged? I hope is that at least the truth will come out and someone will pay the price for the death of this child…

Okay, am I understanding this correctly? the school has a tape of a murder and is holding out on releasing it due to other kids faces being on it? this doesn’t make a lot of sense. How do you get away with the police knowing that there were cameras that were on and facing the area where the kid was found dead but yet they are not releasing it? I am thoroughly confused!! can someone correct me if I am wrong!

You got it. I really doubt it will ever be released, you can be sure that it has been deleted to never to be seen. Regardless of this judges order and the FBI investigation, these people are currently wracking their brains on how to come up with an excuse as to why this tape isn’t available.

“That’s a part of the murder mystery, too,” Crump said. “The fact that his organs are missing, his clothes that had DNA and blood evidence are missing, his fingernails are missing. All of this is missing and it just substantiates the belief that this was not an accident.”….What his fingernails were missing, where are the clothes. This stinks to high heaven, how if they do find the killer would they charge him with murder with the lack of evidence to support it. His organs gone, etc…this is crazy and scary.

Interesting photos, how the other mats are rolled up really tight. You wouldn’t get more than a 5-year-old in there. They all have 9 layers of rolling, the one he was in only had 6 layers. So he didn’t “fall in”, he was rolled up.

The organs may have had signs of blunt force trauma; a thorough bashing can rupture a spleen or damage a liver.

And how convenient that his internal organs have disappeared…..although bruising would still show up on the skin. I still wonder what, if anything, showed up in his internal organs since we already know we can’t trust the coroner.

The state of Florida is going to hold a new trial for Marissa Alexander! While there is some indication that she is guilty of a crime, the amount of time she received was unjust when compared to the crime she allegedly committed….

crazy, she is getting a new trial due to improper jury instructions. I went through the sentencing before. It was the result of the 10-20-Life law here in Florida, it had nothing to do with her sex or race. Show a gun in a crime and you get 10 yrs, fire one and get 20, kill someone and it’s life. The judge had his hands tied with the law since it is a minimum sentencing requirement.

She was also offered 3 yrs by the prosecutor and she turned it down and decided to take her chances with the jury.

But it’s the law in Florida that is the problem, it was created as a form of gun control and it existed even before the SYG law was created. The sentencing guideline does not offer any discretion for the judge to use.

aussie, go back and read the evidence from the Prosecution entered into the trial and you will realize that it was not self defense. She said the garage door was not working, however when the officers on the scene tried to open it they had no problem. She did not shoot into the ceiling as some wanted us to believe, she actually shot just above the heads of her husband and the children. Take just a moment and look at what she did while out on bond and you will probably realize quite quickly that this lady needs help, along with time in prison…

Exactly crazy1946, She lost out on the SYG law due to her actions and the appellate court upheld this part . She bypassed the two exit doors to the home and went into the garage to retrieve the gun. She claimed that the garage door was broken and she was forced to go back into the home but the cops found nothing wrong with the door. She claimed she fired into the ceiling as a warning shot but her shot was at head level and where 2 kids were standing.

She never called 911 to get help, her husband did. She was under a no contact order of protection and violated it repeatedly, even conceiving a child with him during the time it was current.

Yes there was a history of domestic violence but there was a history on both sides and not just one. In fact when she was out on bond and another no contact order was part of it, she again violated it and gave her husband a black eye and left.

Maybe they will offer her the same 3 yr plea deal before the start of the trial, if they do she should take it and most likely get time served. But I hope she gets counseling regardless if she gets released or sent back because he ex isn’t the only one with anger issues.

towerflower, I remember your post and while there was a crime committed, perhaps the SAO will reword the charge to such an extent that the mandatory sentence does not come into play… I don’t think this lady is innocent, I merely think the punishment was/is excessive for the crime that was committed… The state of Florida will probably prove me wrong once again and she will still receive a similar sentence, time will tell….

I’m not sure how the charge is listed but if they include it was done with a gun then the 10-20-Life law comes back into play. Only a rewrite of the law will help others in this situation. One big one that everyone can feel sorry for was the service member who went with some friends to a bar and another patron decided to kick someone’s butt, it didn’t matter whose it was. This guy didn’t start the fight, never had a run-in and had a concealed license when he pulled out his gun to defend himself and shot the guy in the leg. Even the aggressor admitted in the trial that the shooter didn’t do anything to him before he decided to fight with him. He also got caught in the law and ended up with a 20 yr sentence.

I feel that the shooter’s lawyer sold him out, telling him and his family that they would go for a SYG hearing only to drop it on the eve of the trial. I can’t remember the guy’s name to give you a reference to the case.

I am sorry but this woman and her actions almost caused her children to be deceased. I read her story and she knew just like Zimmerman knew to claim self defense, they used the law in order to do what they did, the only thing is that it worked against her. She was able to get a new trial because of the Trayvon Martin case, she is sneaky and she had every opportunity to leave that house. She went out and came back and fired that warning shot, she did this in a fit of anger. She did not take the plea of 3 years because she did not want to do any time at all. I watched her in an interview, she was on point with her SYG knowledge. When purchasing a weapon in Florida you all told all of this and sign a form, she knew all to well. People like her and Zimmerman and a lot of gun owners abuse their right to carry. I want to see her trial because I want to see if she takes the stand and what her ex has to say, he seems like a jerk and a woman beater but she knew all of this already.

riisey007, I would not disagree that she was guilty of a criminal act in a moment of anger! The sentence she received IMO was excessive for the crime, regardless of what the law read. This lady, if you look at her actions after she was released on bond, show she has poor anger management skills and not only does she need to receive a more realistic sentence, he needs to receive help for her mental issues as well. That would be true justice and much more fitting for the actual crime she committed..

They weren’t her kids but her husband’s from another marriage, not that it makes any difference, she still shot toward kids who were standing with their father.

The husband did not make a good witness since he changed his story. He first accepted blame for the incident and lied about what happened. His story changed from what he said on the 911 call. He said he did it to try and protect her and at the trial went back to the 911 version. He even got his older child to lie to try and keep her out of jail.

betty, everything I found was that the his kids were in the room with him. Here is one quote from the attorney of the husband: “[The shot] was at eye level with my client, right above his 12-year-old. When you have a 12-year-old child who testified to a jury that ‘I thought I was fixin’ to die,’ I’m sorry that is not a misdemeanor…When you shoot a gun that puts a 12-year-old child in fear for his life, that changes things and I think it was prosecuted appropriately.” That was from a HP story.

Also in Angela Corey’s statement: But Corey says that shot was fired at “adult height,” directly at Gray, who was standing in the adjacent living room with his sons, who were aged 9 and 13 at the time.

I see a Zimmermanesque type trial for whomever is brought to trial but it would be odd to see anyone brought to trial at all. The prosecutors would have an uphill battle. I am sure O’mara would love another easy win. This was the problem in the Zimmerman case, the evidence was not collected thoroughly and let’s not forget the lack of evidence due to either it being thrown away or never being collected.

This looks like it may be, in some respects, more difficult than the Zimmerman case in that they may not have any clear way to figure out who to charge in the case and the missing evidence situation seems to be worse. And the passage of time also makes things more difficult.

On the other hand, there may be students who, while they may not have seen what happened, observed enough to have some strong suspicions.

Yahtc, Thanks for posting this! It does give a little more insight into what happened. I wonder if Sheriff Prine realizes how his actions in this attempted interview makes him look guilty of a cover up? He is old enough to have a grand child or nephew of about the age of Kendrick, does anyone have any information on that? Perhaps we have been looking at this from the wrong direction, does he have a granddaughter in that school? I think it would be a safe bet that someone involved in the very upper chain of command in the legal system (or county government) is responsible for this cover up taking place…. Too many questions, and not enough answers….

Just looking at the photo above where it shows the pair of sneakers next his feet. Did anyone have an explanation as to how those sneakers got there? I also see some red on those sneakers, were they tested for blood? I wonder this because I thought all the blood in the immediate crime scene was at his head and not at his feet.

The theory that Johnson climbed into that mat to get his shoes is bs. If you look at the photos taken of Kendrick you will notice that the shoes, that should have been at his head, are between his thighs and calfs. It’s obvious that the shoes went into that mat after the body did.

@Eric. Yes, and something else based on the video. When Kendrick entered the gym, he was only carrying a folder — no shoes, no backpack. It is not reasonable that he would take off the shoes he had on and go barefoot in the gym.

And why would he keep the shoes in the mat? If he didn’t have money for a locker, why not put them in same locker where he kept his books? Surely he had one of those. And was there a second pair of shoes found?

Reblogged this on Crime Investigation Reporting and commented:
I agree with this post and posted this on twitter a while back. I really believe it was much like the Zimmerman case, a cover up with the help of police officials who came to the scene. I would bet it was an officials child who committed the murder. If he is seen on the video that will be released, I think that could help prove it.

No, in this one all 4 officers were in plain clothes and despite them saying they ID’d themselves I wonder about that since the item he pulled out was his wallet. This leads me to believe that he thought he was being robbed and that they never id’d themselves and there are no independent witnesses to support the cops.

This is quite different than the Lopez tragedy. Andy had a replica rifle in his hand and a replica pistol in the front of his pants. The rifle did not have the orange tip on it. Andy had been warned by a leading car that the cops were behind him and he better put the gun away. The chirped the siren and twice told him to drop the weapon—all confirmed by independent witnesses including the lead motorist.

That was a cheap shot, Drew. Amadou Diallo was unarmed when he was killed. Andy Lopez was brandishing a very convincing replica of an AK47 which he apparently refused to drop. That’s not to say that the kid deserved to die but I’m not convinced that the cop was wrong either.

“Asphyxiation: Another possibility is that his death was due to asphyxia. The mechanism for this would be similar to how a boa constrictor works. When a boa wraps around its prey, it contracts its muscles and traps the prey in its coils. Each time the prey exhales and its chest becomes smaller, the boa clamps down a little tighter. Breath by breath it compresses the chest to the point that the prey can no longer inhale because it can no longer expand its chest. Death is then due to asphyxia.

This easily could’ve happened to the victim of this accident. Each time he exhaled, his chest becoming smaller, he might have slipped a little deeper into this trap. With each breath the space became more constricting until he could no longer expand his chest and asphyxia resulted…”

IMO, the mechanism of death set forth above is completely counter to the proposed situation for Kendrick. If we are to believe the GBI tale, then Kendrick would have wedged the opening wider as he moved down the hole in that the circumference around his shoulders is larger than around the chest. In the case of the spelunker cited above, he would be wedging further into a hard rock opening that can not expand.

Read the rest of the article. Being upside down, in and of itself, does not cause positional asphyxiation. There must be a mechanism that locks down on the chest cavity to prevent expansion. A wedged open roll can not do that.

Also note that the spelunker survived for 28 hours upside down in a hard rock hole that got progressively narrower.

My short forensic research also turned up that massive trauma to on side of the neck can indicate violent strangulation.

Could the murder of Kendrick have violently strangled him?

And then stuffed his body upside down with the hope that his form of asphyxiation would be mistaken for an accidental one?

OT, did you see what fogen left tacked to the wall when he left the rented house? That’s a message to be worried about, the guy is a walking time bomb, even if it’s not a physical threat, it’s a psychological one. Bully describes this immature behaviour.

Is this bulls-eye threat common in all civil landlord/tenant disputes since that is what SPD is calling it? No charges filed because it doesn’t reach a criminal level? Who believes this stuff? They said the Dean’s would need proof that the stuff was theirs. Um…wouldn’t the ipad video have all the furniture in the house on it since Shellie followed him all day while he was removing items. If they ever get the video fixed will they go back and charge him? The way law officals have been handling each phase of this saga makes me wonder why Shellie didn’t use some of her website money from GZ to hire some fancy company out of CA to get the video already! What happened to the house surveillance camera that showed the door and driveway and them going in and out during that day when GZ “didn’t” attack Shellie or her father? Did they turn it off for Fogen to move out or did he disable/break it after that day so he could haul out the leather theatre seating, etc. worth thousands?

Guess I just feel like ranting. Please forgive.

And while I’m in billion question mode, can someone tell me when the O’Mara/Keltec event changed? He’s all in the news saying that he went to them to please withdraw the raffle. he could have done this weeks ago. We all knew about it then. Oh but wait…Months ago it was simply that he was just receiving an award at this small political speaking…now it’s O’Mara the “featured speaker” at a gun rights forum rally. Again I shake my head and say, “Who believes this stuff?”

I doubt the organizers story about not knowing the gun chosen for the raffle was the same one used to cause the death of Trayvon while at the same time honoring the lawyer who helped set his killer free. The story calls it a gun rights organization when in fact it is a Republican party grass roots organization.

“George Zimmerman, a deadbeat renter in a townhome community took it upon himself to confront Trayvon Martin, a young lad who had every right to be walking there in that he was staying at the home of a friend of his father.”

Note my part about being a deadbeat could be construed as propaganda, but is it any more slanted than the original statement?

The original statement makes it sound like George had more of a right to be there than Trayvon. And he did not. Paying the rent is part of having any rights to use of property. As far as I know, the home that Trayvon was staying at was either up to date on rent or being purchased.

But, as further events have shown, George feels entitled to other people’s property without paying compensation.

ay2z, There is one problem with this bit of news. Even the story says that Mrs. George Zimmerman, found the item after Mrs. Dean had been in the same area and not seen it. I have some doubts as to the validity of the item, and while it would be great to put this on the list of things that he has done, there is no real factual proof that it was done by him. Do we know that she did not stage this as a means to make herself look more the victim? I’m sorry folks, but I am not convinced of his guilt on this one…

Yahtc, Thank you for posting these video’s! Can it be said that many of us hope that in this case, unlike some others, justice will finally be served? I would not hold my breath waiting for the Justice Dept. stepping in yet, they will not until all other avenues have been exhausted. Again, just like in the Trayvon Martin case, politics will play a large part in the decision to pursue federal charges, and right now this is a hot potato politically…

Yahtc, thank you for reading them. Like most people, I originally thought it was Sheriff Prine’s family that was being protected. After a little research looking a people in the right age group to have a child in that school, I found that this lady not only fit the profile, she had the need to be protected… Time will tell, hopefully… I don’t hold much hope that the tapes have not been doctored…

Yet, a few weeks after being elected as a Democrat, she switched to the Republican and is also a member of the Valdosta Tea Party… Hmmmm…… She is per reports a very influential member of the state legislator… Wields tremendous power in the political community… Would be quite worthy of protection from a scandal involving a member of her family…

While the story is nothing particularly new, one think that caught my eye immediately is the photo of the carpet rolls that Kendrick allegedly fell into! How was it that his feet were not seen from the floor level, or at least from the first level of the stands? This whole case has been absurd since we first heard about it, and the BS from the sheriffs dept. needs to stop now!

kllypyn, Even if somehow Kendrick squeezed into an opening as small as that, if you look at the photo of the rolls, you will quickly notice that his feet would be sticking out of the top of the roll far enough to be seen from eye level! Time for the law in that area to come up with a new story, the one they have used for the last almost a year no longer works…

Given the size and weight of the mats, it seems highly likely that several people were involved in hiding Kendrick’s body. Several also may have been involved in the beating or at least in holding him down during the beating.

While the beating was certainly done on purpose, I think that there is some possibility that they did not intend to kill Kendrick. They may have wanted to “teach him a lesson” and panicked when they realized that he was seriously injured or dead. Or perhaps they intended to kill him all along.

I’m rather puzzled at the claim that the mat that he was rolled up in was behind a bunch of others. That seems as though it would have involved a lot of moving other heavy mats around. How did the perpetrators manage that? Or is it more likely that this claim was part of the cover up, to make it appear to be an accident and/or to offer an excuse as to why it took them so long to call the medical examiner?

The way I understand the layout, the tops of the mats are accessible from the bleachers. This makes in convenient to stuff bodies into the ones closest to the higher level. To get him out they had to move other mats at the main floor level.

Some of the comments for the article linked to above disputed the “not being able to afford locker fees” claim (the fee was $10), but said that some students chose to put their gym stuff under or inside the mats because they found the location of the lockers out of the way and inconvenient. I suppose that in some cases, kids who usually did not bring money to school with them might have simply forgot to bring the money for the fee.

Kendrick’s father said that he tried to get down inside a rolled-up mat (to test the claim that this is what Kendrick did) and he could not force his shoulders in. If this is true, wouldn’t it also be difficult to force a body into a rolled-up mat?

While I can’t say that it wasn’t common practice there to not call the medical examiner until the body became available for examination, it seems to me that this practice could cause problems with preservation of evidence if, as claimed for this case, it was some time before the body could be retrieved, unless crime scene technicians or other specialized law enforcement personnel were on scene to observe and direct. There would be a lot of possibility for crime scene contamination, as happened in this case. Or do they just tend to be sloppy about stuff in small towns? Did they believe that the person rolled up inside the mat could still be alive?

To me, that seems the obvious answer. After beating him up, they got scared because he died, so they rolled him up in the mat and left his body there, making up the story about the shoe. The police liked that story so they went with it. Just like the police (except for Serino, who had not yet turned fishbelly) liked Fogen’s “thug beat me nearly to death” story.

Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad!!! Vicarious trauma, anyone? I’m glad the behind the scenes story about the triangle love affair is finally picking up steam in the media. Twas I who stated that this is what was being whispered about in the little town of Valdosta, Georgia.

Off topic, but I am just appalled at reading this about Gelhaus, the man who shot dead the 13 year old who had a toy gun:

In a 2008 article written by Gelhaus for S.W.A.T. Magazine, the officer warned against hesitation in deciding to use a firearm lethally.

“Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home,” he wrote. “If you cannot turn on the ‘mean gene’ for yourself, who will? If you find yourself in an ambush, in the kill zone, you need to turn on that mean gene.”

How tall is this kid? That’s the very first thing I’m thinking that requires a split second shoot to kill. A little guy holding what kinda looks like the real thing, first thought is the odds are 2-1 it’s a killer kid, shoot to kill.

I read the article. I don’t like it this guy has pulled his weapon out on kids, the article said he shot HIMSELF putting his weapon back to frisk a teenager? He should have been removed then. He’s a danger to society.

rarely have cops had to pull their weapon out.

Police forget it’s these kids parents who’s paying them to protect and serve.

I had that (gun pulled out} happen to me. An off duty Detroit NARC pulled in front on me because he claimed I hit his car with a snowball. I was out walking on Lahser in the early evening because snow falls make an ugly city look beautiful. Anyhow, he cut me off with his car and pulled a gun and demanded to know why I {he called my a F’er} hit his car with a snowball {in actuality, he had run over one of the D’s infamous potholes with the suspension stop making a loud bang and I told him so.}. After I told my tale, he segued to a claim that I was suspicious for walking in the early evening {where have we heard this BS before?} and searched my pockets for weapons. After grumpily stating that I should not be out at night, he got back in the car and drove over the same pothole.

In the case of Detroit at that time, the cops largely lived in the suburbs and more or less considered all of us {black, white or whatever scum to harass and intimidate} Thirty years on and I doubt it has changed a bit.

This was a 24 yr veteran who had never fired his weapon at another person prior to that day……although he did shoot himself once in 1995 at which time he had been on the force for 6 yrs. There is no mention as to what action was taken against him for his carelessness then.

This is the youtube video of the Santa Rosa PD press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnIFq9ZJL1o
Toward the end you will see the actual “toy” compared to a real AK-47. The “toy” looks like the real thing.

Now also consider today’s environment, two days prior to Andy Lopez losing his life, a 12 yr old walked into a school with a real handgun and killed a teacher and wounded two others. I can also find many other cases of a teen or pre-teen who had the real thing and in some cases cops were involved.

The problem I have in this case is not with the police officer but with the parents of the boy who lost his life and the parents who owned the “toy” that cost Andy his life. When are we as parents going to start to accept some responsibility for our actions or lack thereof? The reason I say this is because first the “toy” did not have an orange tip on it as required by Federal Law. This Law exists for a reason and this is it. What hasn’t been mentioned yet is if the tip had been covered over or removed (also a Federal law violation). Andy also had a second “toy pistol” stuffed into the front of his waistband–although this one did have the orange tip but the cops could not see this due to him having it down in the front of his pants.

Next Andy’s father gave an interview in which he said he supervised his son while playing with the “toys” but yet he saw no need to supervise him when he walked alone down a public street to return the “toys” to a friend’s home. In CA they also have a law dealing with these “toys” in which they cannot be out in a public area and that includes roadways.

It is a parent’s right to buy these “toys” for their child (in CA they can’t buy them until they are 18) but at the same time as an adult you should educate yourself to the laws concerning these “toys” and then educate your child.

I teach firearm safety to children and one of the things I tell them is there are two questions a cops does not have to ask you. 1. How old are you? and 2. Is it real? My own son had a “toy” pointed at him a couple of years ago by a carload of teens harassing his friend and this one also did not have an orange tip. I filed charges against the teen and when the teen was arrested he was like “so what” and “it was only a toy” until the cop told him if he had been there, he would be dead. At that point the teen started to shake when reality hit him.

I’m sorry for the long post. I’m sorry that an innocent teen lost his life. But sometimes it isn’t the cops fault but our own as parents.

Boyd, It was a tragic, avoidable accident. I don’t blame Andy. I blame the parents–his parents and the ones who owned the replica toy.

Look at it this way, do you leave your car keys laying around with your kids? I would guess to say that most parents would say yes. But most children would never consider taking the keys and going for a joy ride, why? Because parents have talked to them and educated them. The same goes with these “toys”. Andy was not capable of buying this toy on his own, an adult had to purchase it since CA law says you have to be 18.

What if it had been a gang-banger and a real AK-47? Or a mentally ill teen who got ahold of their parent’s real AK? Yes the government passed a law on these replica “toys” and they did so for a reason, to protect the lives of innocent kids in encounters with cops. Why do we need to buy our kids a replica toy that looks like the real thing?

Malisha, They have witnesses who heard the cop say twice for him to drop the weapon, this also matches what the cop said. Also the car in front of the deputies car hollered out to Andy prior to the shooting that the cops were behind him and to put the gun away. See the local story on it: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20131029/articles/131029497#page=2
The only thing in question is whether or not he identified himself as a cop in his orders.

Did he tell the kid to drop the gun before he shot him? No one seems to be asking that question. why did he shoot him 7 times.no one seems to be asking that question. Why didn’t he shoot him in the leg. why is it always shoot to kill? Something doesn’t smell right here.

They train cops to “shot to kill”. This is so they can eliminate a threat and not put themselves or others in a further threat. If this had been a real AK-47 and not a toy, then the cops were outgunned. A person can shoot 7-10 rounds per second from one of these plus the body armor nor the car would protect the cops from their rounds. In other words an AK against a Glock isn’t an even match. Shooting one in the leg does not eliminate the threat.

Yes he told the teen twice to drop the weapon before he shot him and witnesses back that. He was shot when he started to turn toward them with the “toy” still in his hand. The autopsy confirms this with no shots to his back but his side and front.

It is tragic that this teen lost his life. I know I could never be a cop because of these types of decisions they would have to make. Shoot or don’t shoot. Live or die. Yes, there are some dirty cops and some who try and cover their tracks but in this case there were too many witnesses and in fact a passing motorist even told the teen to get rid of the gun because of the police behind him.

@TF I am unable to embrace your perspective in this case. It was murder. Shoot to kill is wrong. Remember the SWAT team that refused to enter Columbine for fear of getting hurt, causing a teacher to bleed to death? Pretend heroes are not needed. Neither are cowards with guns.

Judy, What happened in Columbine changed the way the police handled shootings. Prior to that the local police weren’t trained for active shooters, they were used to hostage demands and to wait for the SWAT team to arrive which took 45 mins and then they swept the school room by room not knowing the shooters had already committed suicide. SWATS would secure a building first and first responders were held back until the threat was over.

Just like with other tragedies, the aviation industry comes to mind as one who does this, changes happen after such a tragedy and most don’t think of what might happen beforehand. After Columbine, police forces across the nation developed “active-shooter” training in which responding officers no longer wait on a SWAT team and actively pursue the shooter even bypassing the injured in the process. The goal is to eliminate the threat who can take out a victim at one every 15 seconds typically.

Columbine helped changed the procedures nation wide and, in that, hopefully those that died did not die in vain.

So what do you propose? Just yesterday we had a young man walk into LAX and started to kill unarmed TSA agents all because he had a thing against the government. Do you suggest that he be taken down with a leg shot that would do nothing to stop the shooter? Let him kill a few others until he runs out of ammo? Do you think the family of the dead TSA agent would have liked to have the airport security take him out the minute the firearm was pulled out? We live in a different world then we I was a kid. I didn’t have kids walk into a school to kill classmates, I wasn’t exposed to gangs to killed others over “territory” or wearing the wrong color. Nor do I remember the work place mass killings happening that we see today. It’s not the access to guns since we had access to them then but something has changed in society.

On another note: Jack Cashill’s book “If I had a Son” is just out. Plugged heavily by WND and American (un)Thinker. Looking for some major critiquing but haven’t seen it yet.

Apparently he has swallowed whole and now regurgitates the tale (most likely invented by Robt jr) that Zimmerman had a leadership role in fighting for justice for Ware (the black homeless man beaten by a police officer’s son on camera, just for the fun of it). He claims the (big bad) media ignored this, altough I recall some reporter trying to find some substantian and coming up empty. Cashill claims that there is video of gz speaking at a pro-Ware rally.

He spoke at a public meeting whose purpose was NOT to defend Ware, but was to get rid of the old police chief, who had actually said he was going to investigate everyone who had anything to do with the event. He said not one word about Ware; he said the former chief should not have his pension. LEE REPLACED THAT GUY who was forced out. He was actually forced out NOT to defend Ware, but to prevent a real departmental shake-up and punishment of cover-up-cops.

Natalie Jackson represented Sherman Ware. SHE SAID Fogen did not lift a finger to help and the churches involved said they had never heard of him and he never put leaflets on cars.

All the evidence clearly points to Fogen being a patronizing, self-serving liar who will say or do anything to curry favor with those he feels can help him. He even made up mentoring black children. His family made up the sweet Georgie poo making dinner for his wife BS.

So Lee, in effect, returned a favor.

They should call that place suck ass Sanford. That seems to be what they feel a man is – a suck ass.

Malisha is correct, the pamphlet that fogen made was a rant about the chief of police and the corrupt officers under him. Ware’s name nor race is never mentioned and there is only a sentence mentioning a homeless man being beaten under the chief’s watch.

I do not see George Zimmerman’s name printed on the flyers. More of the Zimmerman family embellishment BS.

He allegedly printed these flyers and tirelessly put them on windshields in the black community. Kind of like cooking that faux Sunday dinner after mentoring those virtual black children.

A more likely scenario is that toady cop wannabe George put these flyers that he did not write {I surely doubt that moron knows who Edmund Burke is} on windshield as part of a smear campaign under the aegis of Lee.

And some of those officers under suspicion in the Ware case later arrested George.

Ach so.

Ware gets removed due to this flyer campaign before he can do further investigation and later on Lee pulls the plug on charging one of the “good guys” – George Zimmerman.

Ware was the homeless man and not the Chief of Police. But that Chief had been removed and Lee was only in the job for 10 mths when Fogen’s happened and he also lost his job. He had praised Lee in his emails about the starting of the NW.

There will be more cover-ups. We will lose count. I heard that someone at IBM was working on a new computer program that would count cover-ups but they had to abandon the project because the motherboard kept overheating. They tried to install cooling devices but someone covered them up so there was no ventilation and they failed. Oh well.

It had been reported very early on in this case that the victim had been in an altercation with the son of a member of the law enforcement community in the recent past. This case needs to be fast tracked to the Fed’s, before more evidence becomes “missing” or “rendered unusable”! This department has exhibited, according to reports, bias and unprofessional behavior in the past, and it would seem that they continue to do so… Time is on their side, and action needs to take place now, not later or we will see once again that justice is denied to a child because of race…

Professor, To clarify my comment, by saying it had been reported, perhaps I should have said that I had bookmarked an article about this case that was published in the Valdosta paper shortly after the “incident”, several commenters had mentioned the altercation and the implication that the party involved in the fight was the son of the sheriff… What is not surprising is not only the article no longer available using my book mark, I can’t seem to find it on their site either….

I strongly suspect that something like this is the truth and it seems pretty clear that the police arrived at the school having already decided that the outcome of the investigation would be that no crime was committed. Same with the autopsy. Only a person in a very high position of authority in the Lansdowne County Sheriff’s Office supported by influential local big money could pull this off. That’s the way corruption works in the south. It’s institutional and multi-generational dating back to at least the Civil War. That’s the only way a decision like this can be made with an expectation that everyone on the law enforcement side will accept the decision without challenge, including the medical examiner and other forensic lab personnel at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. If the Sheriff didn’t make this decision, then someone above him ordered him to make it.

The little people (the poor, racial minorities especially blacks, the mentally ill and the rest of the marginalized) are expected to accept what they do, no matter how offensive it may be. The people in power are so used to getting their way that they get sloppy and assume that no one will ever call them on their bullshit.

Imagine their surprise when Kendrick’s parents called bullshit and used the internet to plead their case in the court of public opinion. Then they got an order to exhume Kendrick’s body for a real autopsy and now the Lansdowne Sheriff’s Office, the Lansdowne School District, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are in a total cover-up mode hiding the ball and insisting the case is closed.

Meanwhile, the pressure will continue to build and their stubborn refusal to release information and videos is causing people to conclude that they have something to hide.

This cannot end well for them and we the people owe a debt of thanks to Kendrick’s parents, everyone who has supported them, and the internet.

Just as Tracy and Sybrina before them they have shown us how to fight back.

We have the numbers and with the internet we now have a way to communicate with each other.

Professor, look at this link about (part of it is anyway) jail deaths in the Valdosta area. It is difficult to read because of the way it is formatted, yet if you read the age and cause of death of the inmates you will see a pattern that seems to still continue today… The number of jail deaths is shocking especially when you consider the size and population of the area! If you will dig you will also see the level of corruption that the school system possesses, you would have to go to a much larger school system to see one that matches this relatively small one…

They don’t say that, but the rumors were that he was involved in a dispute over a girl that had once dated a son of a law enforcement member originally it was said it was the son of the Sheriff but he doesn’t have a son.